Time Between

Don't say you love me , Don't say you care
You're so far away
Telephone communication, Only a three minute elation
When I hear your voice

 

Through love and trust it's gonna work out fine
The only pain I feel is all this time between
You and Me

 

All the days have turned to years 

Only emphasize my fears
Since you said goodbye
I can hear your voice at night 

I can read the words you write
It's only love

 

Through love and trust it's gonna work out fine
The only pain I feel is all this time between
You and Me

Now, Don't say you love me , Don't say you care
You're so far away
I can hear your voice at night 

I can read the words you write
It's only love

 

Through love and trust it's gonna work out fine
The only pain I feel is all this time between
You and Me

1.  Byrds, Time Between (from Younger Than Yesterday, 1966) -- Chris Hillman vocal

2.  Byrds, Time Between (from Live At The Fillmore, 1969) -- Roger McGuinn vocal

3.  Time Between, from the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday lp, was Chris Hillman's first song.  Can you imagine?  As the French say, "Formidable." 

Rare Gold Bell Discovered by Archaeologists from Israel in Excavations in Jerusalem (From ArtDaily.org)

 

A gold bell is displayed at the offices of Israel's Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem. AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner.

 

JERUSALEM.-  

        A rare gold bell with a small loop at its end was discovered during an archaeological excavation in the drainage channel that begins in the Shiloah Pool and continues from the City of David to the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden, near the Western Wall. The excavations are being conducted at the site on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority and underwritten by Ir David Foundation.

          According to the excavation directors, archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of Haifa University, "It seems the bell was sewn on the garment worn by a high official in Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period (first century CE). The bell was exposed inside Jerusalem's main drainage channel at that time, among the layers of earth that had accumulated along the bottom of it. This drainage channel was built and hewn the length of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, on the bottom of the slope descending to the Tyropoeon Valley. This drainage channel conveyed rainwater from different parts of the city, by way of the City of David and the Shiloah Pool, to Nahal Kidron.

           The main street of the Jerusalem is in the region of the excavation, above the drainage channel. This road ascended from the Shiloah Pool in the City of David and an interchange, known today as 'Robinson's Arch', was built in it, by way of which people entered the Temple Mount. Apparently, the high official was walking in the Jerusalem street in the vicinity of Robinson's Arch and lost the gold bell that fell from his garment into the drainage channel beneath the road.

           We know from sources that the high priests, who served in the Temple, used to hang a gold bell from the fringes of their robe. Thus, for example, in the 'Tetzaveh' Torah portion, in the Book of Exodus, there is a description of the high priest Aaron's robe: "All of blue... it shall have a binding of woven work... And upon the skirts of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the skirts thereof; and bells of gold between them round about." It is impossible to know for certain if the bell did indeed belong to one of the high priests; however, the possibility should not be entirely discounted. 

  
Note:  Caroline mentioned this discovery to me yesterday.  I believe CNN ran a story on it and I was delighted to find it and to be able to share the news and photo for others who might have missed it.  An uplifting item in a benighted and troubled time, I think. 

Please: Click on photos for Delightful Enlargements.

God Particle Redux (From The Telegraph)

Large Hadron Collider (link)

Existence of God particle to be decided by next year

It has been speculated upon for decades and at the weekend there were hints that the existence of the highly sought-after “God particle” had finally been confirmed. 

 

The Large Hadron Collider is a 17-mile ring of superconducting magnets Photo: AP

By Martin Beckford

9:00PM BST 25 Jul 2011

        But at a press conference on Monday, the physicists in charge of the Large Hadron Collider said that they had only established where the Higgs boson was not to be found, and that its location continues to elude them. 

        However they added that as the amount of data created by the atom-smashing experiments increases, they now expect to know whether or not the most-wanted particle exists within 18 months.

If it is tracked down, it will explain how particles come to have mass and provide the final piece in the Standard Model of physics that was first set out in the 1970s, while if it turns out not to exist then the textbooks could be ripped up.

        Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern), told reporters: “I would say we can settle the question of the Higgs boson, the Shakespearean question ‘to be or not to be’ at the end of next year.”

        Buried 300ft below the border between France and Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider is a 17-mile ring of superconducting magnets around which two beams of particles are sent at close to the speed of light, then smashed into each other. 

[Related Articles

• Hunting the God Particle: what is the Higgs boson?
  26 Jul 2011
• God particle: The Large Hadron Collider
  26 Jul 2011] 

        Scientists working on several experiments then study the wreckage of the high-energy collisions in the hope of spotting particles that explain how the universe works, as well as answering questions about possible extra dimensions and the mysterious dark matter.

        The £6billion LHC – which features in a book written by The Da Vinci Code author, Dan Brown – suffered several early setbacks after its launch in September 2008, with a helium leak caused by a faulty electrical connection leading to more than a year of repairs.

        But on Friday researchers suggested they were close to achieving one of their main aims – catching sight of the elusive Higgs boson.

        It was first postulated by the Scottish physicist Peter Higgs in 1964 as part of the Standard Model of physics, as an invisible field that gives mass to particles, but remains theoretical.

        Results from two of the collider’s detectors, called Atlas and CMS, suggested “bumps” in their data that might prove first glimpse of the Higgs.

        It had previously been thought to have a mass between 114 and 185GeV (gigaelectronvolts), as theories and models mean “we know everything about it, except if it exists”.

     Prof Heuer said recent experiments meant the range from 150 to 200GeV has now been ruled out as a possible “hiding place” for the Higgs.

        It narrows down the search, probably to within the 115 to 140GeV range.

        “If we find this Higgs then this thing holds together and the Standard Model is valid. If we do not find this low-mass Higgs, that means the Standard Model is no longer valid as we know it today.”

        However Prof Heuer said even disproving the Higgs’s existence would be a “breakthrough”, as the question would still be settled and a new search would be on to explain the fundamentals of the physical world. 

LINK TO MORE HIGGS BOSON ON ACRAVAN! 

Past Is Prologue/Expletive Deleted

    Watching the president's intensely partisan, disturbing political speech last night concerning the "debt ceiling crisis" he has recklessly precipitated, I was sadly reminded of the shocking passage in Robert Woodward's 2010 book, "Obama's Wars", where he revealed so much about himself by saying (in response to a question from Sen. Lindsey Graham, who had asked him whether his Afghanistan "withdrawal timetable" was "firm":

"I have to say that," Mr. Obama replied. "I can't let this be a war without end, and I can't lose the whole Democratic Party." (Emphasis mine.)

    I had never previously imagined that a person who chose to run for president and lead our nation (especially one who had previously expressed strong, passionate support for the Afghanistan engagement -- aka the "good war" -- as part of his daily campaign rhetoric) could possibly speak like this -- could possibly continue to send men and women into deadly battle if he did firmly not believe in the justness of a cause, if all of his actions were just political play-acting.

       The president's statement did occasion some shock and revulsion at the time of publication (the White House never denied its accuracy), but nothing like the outrage that would have obtained if: (a) we still raised an army by conscription; and/or (b) if we had an honest, non-supine media.

    A number of years ago, during the "LewinskyVision" days of President Clinton's second term, I heard a television pundit define immorality as "seeing people as a means to an end, rather than as ends in and of themselves."

    I think that's what we have here.  I do not care for politicians generally and I am not saying that this president has a monopoly on immorality;  I do think he's firmly planted his flag in that territory, however.

    According to Woodward, Sen. Graham's response to the president was:

    “Mr. President, let’s just don’t let that statement get so much attention.”

Expletive Deleted. 

Mr Standfast (John Buchan, 1919)

I took the train three days later from King’s Cross to Edinburgh. I went to the Pentland Hotel in Princes Street and left there a suit-case containing some clean linen and a change of clothes.  I had been thinking the thing out, and had come to the conclusion that I must have a base somewhere and a fresh outfit.  Then, in well-worn tweeds and with no more luggage than a small trench kit-bag, I descended upon the city of Glasgow.

 

        I walked to the station which Blenkiron had given me.  It was a hot summer evening, and the streets were filled with bareheaded women and weary-looking artisans.  As I made my way down the Dumbarton Road I was amazed at the number of able-bodied fellows about, considering that you couldn’t stir a mile on any British front without bumping up against a Glasgow battalion.  Then I realized that there were such things as munitions and ships, and I wondered no more.

John Buchan:  Chapter 36 ("Andrew Amos").  
Excerpt from Mr Standfast.  London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1919

Sick, Weird Science (From The Telegraph -- Not A Murdoch Newspaper -- 4-21-09)

   

How about that?

Fish get seasick, scientist 'proves'

It has long been wondered whether fish get seasick but now a German scientist has claimed he has proved that in fact they do.

 

 

The eight seasick fish were later culled and their brains examined to try to determine the exact cause of their sickness Photo: PA

 

By Allan Hall in Berlin 

11:22AM BST 21 Apr 2009

        Dr Reinhold Hilbig, a zoologist from Stutgart, studied the effects of weightlessness in water as part of research into how humans are affected in space.

        Forty-nine fish in a mini aquarium were sent up in a plane that went into a steep dive, simulating the loss of gravity astronauts encounter in space flight.

        He said eight of the fish began turning around and around in circles.

       "They completely lost their sense of balance, behaving like humans who get seasick," said Dr. Hilbig.

        "The fish lost their orientation, they became completely confused and looked as if they were about to vomit. In the wild such a "seasick" fish would become prey for others because they are incapable of fleeing from danger."

         The eight seasick fish were later culled and their brains examined to try to determine the exact cause of their sickness.


        "It would seem the loss of eye contact with water movement and vibrations plays a large part in their disorientation," Dr Hilbig said.

 

Note:  "Culled".  Close to "killed", but somehow acceptable.  Hideous.

 

Baptism of Solitude (Sahara Dancing with Paul Bowles)

        In the Sahara as elsewhere in North Africa, popular religious observances often include elements of pre-Islamic faiths in their ritual;  the most salient example is the institution of religious dancing, which persists despite long-continued discouragement of the custom by educated Moslems.  Even in the highly religious settlement of the M'Zab, where the puritanism is carried to excessive lengths, the holding of dances is not unknown.

        At the time I lived there children were not allowed to laugh in public, yet I spent an entire night watching a dozen men dance themselves into unconsciousness beside a bonfire of palm branches.  Two burly guards were necessary to prevent them from throwing themselves into the flames.  After each man had been pulled back from the fire several times, he finally ceased making his fantastic skyward leaps, staggered and sank to the ground.  He was immediately carried outside the circle and covered with blankets, his place being taken by a fresh adept. 

        There was no music or singing, but there were eight drummers, each one playing an instrument of different size.

From Paul Bowles, Their Heads Are Green And Their Hands Are Blue: Scenes From The Non-Christian World..  New York, Random House, 1963.